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MENSIGHT SPECIAL ISSUE ON
 MALE CIRCUMCISION

Article... by J. Steven Svoboda, Gregory J. Boyle, and Christopher P. Price
Circumcision of Boys: A Serious Male Health Problem...
Circumcision does not constitute genuine medical treatment.  It violates criminal law, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and also human rights. The health implications are graver than is generally realised, despite clear medical evidence of adverse effects from the pain, significant complications, psychological harm and inevitable prejudice to genital function. There are no clearly demonstrable medical benefits.  The law, the medical profession, and society in general seems to have turned two blind eyes to this serious form of violence against males.
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Article... by R. S. Van Howe, J. S. Svoboda*, J. G. Dwyer, and C. P. Price
Involuntary Circumcision: The Legal Issues
Circumcision is the amputation of the prepuce from the rest of the penis, resulting in permanent alteration of the anatomy, histology, and function of the penis.[1,2] Recently legal scholars have challenged neonatal circumcision’s legality[3-7] and argued that it constitutes child abuse.[8,9] While this conjecture may seem outlandish to American physicians who tend to a population in which 70% to 90% of the males are circumcised neonatally, such claims have a strong foundation in legal precedent and medico-ethical standards that aim to protect the bodily integrity of persons.
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Article... by Kristen and Jeffery O'Hara
The effect of male circumcision on the sexual enjoyment of the female partner
Male circumcision, the most commonly performed surgery in the USA, removes 33 - 50% of the penile skin, as well as nearly all of the penile fine touch neuroreceptors. To date no study has investigated whether this dramatic alteration in the male genitalia affects the sexual pleasure experienced by the female partner or whether a woman can physically discern the difference between a penis with a foreskin. The impact that male circumcision has on the overall sexual experience for either partner is unknown.
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Article...
Unnecessary Circumcision. By George Denniston MD, MDH. ... We now know that circumcision does not prevent masturbation, nor does masturbation lead to insanity.
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Article...
Infant Circumcision FAQ... from Circumcision Information Resource homepage
What is circumcision? ... What are some reasons that circumcision is performed? Circumcision is primarily performed for cultural or religious reasons. ...
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REGULAR FEATURES

Guest Article... by Glenn Sacks and Mike McCormick
NOW at 40: Group’s Opposition to Shared Parenting
Contradicts Its Goal of Gender Equality...
The National Organization for Women turned 40 this summer, and formally celebrated its anniversary at its national conference in July. NOW President Kim Gandy has proudly recounted her organization's successes in opening up opportunities for women, and says they are “never giving up the dream of full equality for all.”
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Men's Worklife... by Marty Nemko
Making the Most of Career Counselors and Coaches...
Many older people seem to derive pleasure mainly by reminiscing or by waiting for their children to call. That is a formula for unhappiness, for feeling your life is essentially over.
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COYOTE... monthly column by Dick Prosapio
Hope at Work...
Our plant life here in New Mexico is the very personification of "Hope". We are in a drought here and, for those of you who have the luxury of not experiencing that, it means that everything dies.
At least, that would be true anywhere else a drought would strike, like Kansas for example. But here it means everything waits. Everything with the wisdom brought about through experience that is.
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THE NEW INTIMACY... monthly column by Judith Sherven, Ph.D. and James Sniechowski, Ph.D.
Dying A Fabulous Death . . . Is That Possible?...
Think about the reasons you’re glad to be alive.
Those everyday things that you may even take for granted: being able to walk, talk, see, hear, cook, garden, drive a car, dance at parties, eat a terrific meal and laugh with friends.
And then think about what it would be like to start losing most of those abilities. 
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JEFF'S LIFE... monthly column by Jeff Stimpson
His Old Man and the Sea...
I can still see that beach in Maine. An old high school friend sat with Ned on the sand while Jill and I took turns with Alex in the surf. Alex would dash in and out, splashing up to his knees. I'd whirl him high above the foam, milky stuff, frothy and warm. He loves the ocean, we knew then. The following summer, we went to Coney Island, and without stopping Alex ran into the ocean with his clothes on.     
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DADS, DON'T FIX YOUR KIDS... monthly column by Mark Brandenburg, M.A
Fathers, Anger, and Heart Attacks...
My kids were dawdling, even though I'd asked them to get ready on two occasions. "Come on!" I yelled. "How many times do I have to say this?" As they picked up their pace and came down the stairs, my kids both gave me a "look."
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TOWARD MANHOOD... A book in progress by Larry Pesavento
Chapter 18...  Good Work
Indigenous peoples believed that one's identity and life work were sacred gifts from the gods. They did not believe that these things were arbitrary. These people were not existentialists, like modern man, believing that they could create their own identities, or arbitrarily create a satisfying life direction. In humility they believed that their work was the result of their calling. At the same time, they believed that their work was their identity playing out in their lives. They believed their work continued the work of a higher power, like the Force, if they kept themselves in harmony with that power. To them, one's work was intricately connected to one's spiritual path.
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LATEST REVIEWS

REVIEW: Straight Talk for Men about Marriage: What Men Need to Know About Marriage (And What Women Need to Know About Men)
By Martin G. Friedman ©2006
The author has put together an appealingly presented, male-friendly guide to improving the quality of our marriages. As Friedman is the first to point out, this isn’t exactly rocket science. We need to learn to do the basics. A marriage is a path to learning about ourselves. Projecting our discontent onto our spouse doesn’t do either of us any favors.
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REVIEW: Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey into Manhood and Back Again
By Norah Vincent
Norah Vincent has produced a new book whose simple underlying concept nevertheless seems to possess all the potential power of, say, John Howard Griffin’s classic Black Like Me, in which the Caucasian author masqueraded as a black man and was astonished at the depths of the discrimination and barriers he discovered.  Author Vincent tries to do the same thing for gender, dressing in drag as “Ned” and entering various supposed male bastions to report on what she discovers.
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REVIEW: The Smart Couple’s Guide to the Wedding of Your Dreams:
Planning Together for Less Stress and More Joy
By By Judith Sherven and James Sniechowski
Judith Sherven and James Sniechowski, husband-and-wife psychologists and authors of three books previously reviewed by me in these pages (The New Intimacy, Opening to Love 365 Days a Year, and Be Loved for Who You Really Are) have just published a new book on their favorite topic, love and marriage. In a literal sense, The Smart Couple’s Guide to the Wedding of Your Dreams covers a narrower subject than any of their three previous books.  But actually, predictably enough given the authors’ excellent writing skills and tireless, creative devotion to promoting passion, their latest offering manages to transcend the limits of the genre of wedding guides.  Not seeing a book that went beyond the technicalities of wedding planning and touched the spirit of the event, they took the plunge and wrote it!
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REVIEW: Partnering: A New Kind of Relationship
By Hal Stone and Sidra Stone © 2006
Hal and Sidra Stone are, like Judith Sherven and James Sniechowski (whose latest book is reviewed elsewhere in this issue) a husband-and-wife psychologist team who have written a number of books and who travel the world giving workshops on their techniques for improving one’s life and relationships.  Partnering does not represent a stunning advance on the authors’ previous work but it does expand, in the specific context of relationships, on the work they have helped pioneer in exploring the multiple selves each of us contains through the voice dialogue technique.
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REVIEW: The Prodigal Father: A True Story of Tragedy, Survival, and Reconciliation in an American Family.
By Jon DuPre.
Jon DuPre’s achievement with “The Prodigal Father” is stupefying. What this correspondent for Fox Network News has done is so simple: He has told the story of his family of origin, consisting of two brothers, himself, and his mother and father. As a novel, the book would fail. For one thing, the plot would be utterly unbelievable! But “The Prodigal Father” is billed as an “autobiography,” and written with loving detail and self-revelation so honest and so deep that took my breath away. As such, it is utterly compelling and simultaneously completely credible.
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REVIEW: Gendercide and Genocide
Edited by Adam Jones © 2006
Apart from the rarest exceptions (such as the not-to-be-missed “Female ‘Circumcision’ in Africa: Culture, Controversy, and Change,” Edited by Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ylva Hernlund), edited volumes tend to be hit-and-miss affairs. It’s hard enough simply to find an appropriate topic, to accumulate contributions that are varied enough to provide interest but not so different that they work at cross-purposes, and to publish the work. Maintaining a razor-like focus as can easily be done with an individually authored book by definition becomes almost impossible with an edited volume.
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Archive of All Reviews & Interviews... by J. Steven Svoboda.

MILITARY HONOR ROLL... Pay tribute to the Veterans or Active Duty military in your life on our perpetual Military Honor Roll page
Go to Military Honor Roll

FATHERS HONOR ROLL... Pay tribute to your father (grandfather, great grandfather, etc.) on our perpetual Fathers Honor Roll page
Go to Fathers Honor Roll

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MENSIGHT Magazine is another free service of The Men's Resource Network, Inc. (MRN). It has grown out of the response that we have received from articles posted on TheMensCenter.com (TMC), our official web-site. The first issue went on-line on May 1, 2000. (Archive)

MENSIGHT is dedicated to publishing diverse articles for and about men. We believe that there are valuable lessons to be learned from the advocates of all the various men's issues.

MENSIGHT will publish articles, stories and information that will be welcomed by many and controversial to others. We offer the magazine for your edification but you are free to disagree or reject what you do not like. Be advised that we do not necessarily agree with every position that is expressed here.

We hope that you will be entertained, informed, educated, stimulated, and/or motivated by what you read here. We seek to empower men to be the authority of their own lives. We do not seek to tell men what to think or feel.